166 
AMEEICAE" AGRIOULTURIST. 
[April, 
Box Window Garden. 
A box easily made, can be so applied to the out¬ 
side of any window, as to be an ornament, and 
a constant source of pleasure throughout the 
summer, and when frosts come, the box may be 
changed to the inside, and be refurnished, replac¬ 
ing exhausted plants with others, and be a thing 
of beauty and joy all the winter. Any ordinary 
box, made or bought for a few cents, of inch 
boards, a foot or so in width or depth, and as long 
as the window is wide, can be tilled up with little 
work. It is strengthened by screwing upon all the 
inside corners, including the bottom ones, pieces of 
tin cut two inches wide, and bent at right angles, 
to tit in closely. The bottom rests on the window 
ledge, and is held from slipiDing off by a hook from 
the underside, closing into a ring fastened into the 
window sill. The outer side of the box is sup¬ 
ported by a wire or small chain, running from a 
ring in each corner up to rings at the sides of the 
window. Before setting it in place, stain the box 
in imitation of walnut, or ornament with some 
simple distinct pattern, with two colors of paint. 
Brown and white, black and white, or a dull, dark- 
blue and white, are good. Bright red should be 
avoided, or indeed any shade of red, as it will not 
harmonize well with some delicate colored flowers. 
A bright blue can be sometimes used to advantage, 
A WraDOW' BOX. 
If some regular pattern of floor oil-cloth is used 
to cover the box, when seen from a little distance, 
it will appear as if covered with tiles. The box is 
lilled with earth, and such plants as make a good 
show either of flower or foliage, planted in it. 
German Ivy and Kenilworth Ivy are good for 
trailing over the edge. Ferns, some kinds of orna¬ 
mental grass, geraniums, begonias, eallas, ver¬ 
benas, and the small-flowered petunias, are all de¬ 
sirable. Rose colored and scarlet flowers in the 
same box do not have a good effect. There should 
always be white flowers mixed in with bright col¬ 
ored ones, and for these sweet alyssum does well. 
An excellent plan is to have some of the plants in 
pots sunk in the earth ; then when the plant goes 
out of bloom, the pot can be removed and another 
set in its place, without disturbing the other 
plants in the box. Mrs. Busyhand. 
Home-Made Easel With Paper Back. 
There was one coimer of our sitting-room for 
which there appeared no appropriate article of fur¬ 
niture. Neither table nor chair fitted it. One of the 
girls suggested an easel, and one of the boys set to 
work at once to carry out the idea. In a few days 
the corner was tilled with a pretty home-made 
easel, on which was placed an attractive engraving. 
Later an ornamental pocket was added, below the 
cross-piece on which the picture rested, for the re¬ 
ception of newspapers, pamphlets, or music. The 
easel can be made of pine, and stained either 
black or walnut brown, then oiled or varnished. 
Qrit may be made of ash, or maple, or other light 
w'ood, and be as simple or elaborate as one’s taste 
may suggest. The pocket can be made and used 
independent of the easel, and attached to it by 
screws, or tied on with bright-colored ribbons. 
A Word on Cooking. 
To say that the happiness of home depends in a 
great degree upon the cooking, would seem at first 
to be considering it from a very low standpoint. 
Yet it is true, and it is,also true that in the major¬ 
ity of well-to-do homes this responsibility so im¬ 
portant in its consequences is given over to an ig¬ 
norant, careless and incompetent class. To con¬ 
sult one of this class, in a case of severe illness, 
would be considered the extreme of foolishness ; 
but not only the health of the body, but of the 
mind, and morals even, has its foundation in the 
food which sustains life. Cooking needs an intel¬ 
ligent, cultivated mind to guide the hands quite as 
much as painting and music.' It is one thing to 
prepare food so carefully that it shall look inviting 
and be nourishing and digestible ; quite another to 
mix a few ingredients, place them in the oven, or 
over the stove, which is either too hot or too cold 
oftentimes, without any interest as to the result. 
Take one or two common dishes as cooked by or¬ 
dinary servants, and compare them with what they 
should be; for instance that much abused dish, 
“hash.” No wonder, as it is brought to the ta¬ 
ble too often. The odds and ends of meat, left 
over from many meals, are picked up; some are 
fresh and some dry, some with tough gristle on, 
and all chopped together with potatoes (the last 
perhaps just cooked and hot, which spoils all 
hashes). It is put into a cold spider, with fat of 
some kind, and moistened with water, sometimes 
too much and sometimes too little. When hot it is 
sent to the table. The real, appetizing hash is 
something very different and a nice breakfast dish. 
Water in which meat of any kind has been boiled 
should be set away to cool, the fat removed and the 
broth saved for soups, stews and hashes. Ail gra¬ 
vies should be saved and treated in the same w-ay, 
and no fat at all left in them. A jar of “Extract 
of Beef” should be in every house, and if there is 
neither of the above on hand, a quarter of a tea¬ 
spoonful of the extract in a half cup of hot water 
will moisten and flavor the hash, and add very 
much to its ricjiness. More should be used if the 
quantity of hash needed is large. Corned beef is 
always best, but the hash is good when made of 
cold roast beef, mutton, or fowls. A roast beef 
bone will often have on it meat enough for hash, 
when there is not enough for the table in any other 
form. It should be boiled in a very little water 
(and the water saved to moisten it) until the meat 
loosens from the bones ; then chopped with twice 
the amount of cold boiled potatoes, seasoned with 
salt and pepper and moistened before putting on 
the tire. The spider with a little butter or beef¬ 
dripping in it, should be boiling hot, the hash put 
on and covered until a light brown crust has form¬ 
ed ; then turned over on the platter and served. 
The w'riter once engaged a so-called “ profes¬ 
sional cook.” She came at night and was asked to 
make an omelet for breakfast. It came to the ta¬ 
ble cold, and “flat as a pancake,” and of course 
was hard and indigestible. Why ? It was over¬ 
cooked and also cooked before it should have been, 
for an omelette should be served the moment it is 
off the fire. Eggs, always cook some after re¬ 
moval from the stove, and should therefore be 
taken up before they are fully set. An omelet 
should liave the yolks and whites of the eggs well 
beaten separately, with a spoonful of milk to each 
egg added, with salt and pepper to season, and just 
before placing in a vei'y hot spider, which should 
have a small piece of butter in it, the whites of the 
eggs should be added to the yolks and milk. They 
ought not to be beaten in, but dipped through and 
through the yolks, etc., then poiired into the spider, 
the part which thickens around the edge lifted 
back to the center in a heap and taken up just be¬ 
fore it is all set. If the butter was hot enough it 
will be a delicate brown when turned over upon the 
plate for the table. Ethel Stone, 
Table Decorations. 
Flcral decoration for the table is now attracting 
a great deal of attention, and florists are exercising 
their wits to devise something new and beautiful 
to ornament the “festive board.” At a recent 
Horticultural Exhibition in New York large prizes 
were awarded for the best designs of this kind. 
The craze is sometimes carried to excess, but in 
moderation nothing gives more an air of refinement 
to a neatly spread table than a tew gaily tinted, 
but not too highly perfumed flowers, as strong 
odors affect some people very unpleasantly, es¬ 
pecially feeble persons, and may completely destroy 
the pleasure of a meal in other respects perfect. 
For lunch parties, and ordinary occasions, low 
vases, or triangular-shaped flower dishes of spark- 
Fig. 1.— DISHES ARRANGED FOR A CENTER PIECE. I 
ling cut glass, filled with rosebuds, carnations, and 1 
violets, set here and there on the table, are exceed¬ 
ingly pretty, and are preferred by many to taller 
ones, as they less obstruct the view across the ! 
board. But for a large dinner-party, a center-piece j 
of fmit and flowers seem necessary. If expense is I 
not considered, a handsome epergne or crystal I 
rose-glass like a large bowl, resting on a circular j 
plate-glass mirror, and filled with fragrant bios- [ 
soms, IS always beautiful; but if neither of these !; 
is convenient, an excellent device may be easily 
arranged with articles to be found in every house. 
Take a large platter, round or oval, and set an in- j 
verted saucer upon it. On this place a glass fruit- 1 
dish, and into this two goblets with their feet firm¬ 
ly bound together wdth ribbon, the lower one being j 
inverted, and the upper standing upright. If pre¬ 
ferred a tall slender glass vase may be used in plaee 
of the upper goblet. This forms an extempore ■ 
epergne, and to fill it lay ferns and large leaves i 
Fig. 2.— CENTER PIECE PARTLX FILLED. 
round the edge of the platter, slipping the stems 
under the edge of the saucer to keep them in 
plaee. Heap the plate with fruit, mingling a few 
flowers, for color. Over the edge of the high dish 
hang ferns, ivy, or smilax, to trail gracefully down, 
and All in with grapes, or any other fruit Fill the 
upper goblet with water, and set it in a bouquet, 
from which droops smilax, or some other creeper 
to conceal the glasses. You will thus have a 
graceful and charming decor.ation for the table. 
In cold weather, when flowers are exhorbitantly 
high, and in some places not to be obtained at all, 
fruit and berries alone can be used. Bright red 
and yellow apples, and a few grapes, mixed with 
wild berries and grasses gathered from the fields. 
